Electronic signature collection within an online conference

ABSTRACT

Techniques and systems are described that support collection of electronic signatures within an online conference. At least one user input is received as part of the online conference. The user input specifies an attendee of the online conference that is provide an electronic signature. A signature module is communicated within the online conference. The signature module is configured to receive the electronic signature from the attendee. The electronic signature received via the signature module from the attendee within the online conference is applied to the digital content.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority as a continuation to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/331,498, filed Oct. 21, 2016, and titled“Electronic Signature Collection within an Online Conference,” theentire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Collection of signatures on documents has progressed from conventionaltechniques that involve pen and paper to electronic signatures. Forexample, conventional signatures involving pen and paper are oftencollected by requiring parties that are to sign a document to gather ata common geographic location and then sign the documents together as away to witness the signatures. Thus, this afforded the parties anopportunity to witness the signing of the document but involved thehassle and inconvenience of requiring travel by the parties.

With the advent of electronic signatures, conventional techniques haveadvanced to permit the parties to sign individual copies of a digitaldocument electronically and share these signed documents with each otherover a network, e.g., via email. Thus, signing of the digital documentsmay then be performed by the parties at different times and places fromeach other. However, this conventional technique does not afford theparties an opportunity to witness signatures of the other parties aswith conventional pen and paper. This may also increase difficulty inmaintenance of audit trails used to authenticate and verify thesignatures, such as who signed the document, when the document wassigned, how the document was signed, and so forth.

SUMMARY

Techniques and systems are described that support collection ofelectronic signatures within an online conference. Digital content, suchas a document, is viewed within an online conference, e.g., a webconference, online meeting, and so forth. A host of the onlineconference selects an option to enable electronic signatures of thedigital content, and may also specify who is to provide the signatures.This causes a signature module to be communicated within the onlineconference (e.g., from a conference host module to a conference clientmodule) to collect the electronic signature.

The host, for instance, may select representations of an attendee of theconference that is to provide the electronic signature and position arepresentation of a signature module (e.g., displayed as a “sign here”sticker) in a user interface at a location within the digital content atwhich the electronic signature is to be placed. A view of the digitalcontent and the inserted signature module are then communicated to theattendee that is to electronically sign the digital content within theonline conference.

To sign the document, the attendee selects a representation of thesignature module to insert an electronic signature. This may beperformed through manual input of the electronic signature (e.g., drawnor by text), importation of the electronic signature from a local orremote source, and so forth. The electronic signature is thencommunicated by the signature module and stored as part of the digitalcontent and is not further modifiable by the attendee, e.g., at a hostdevice or conference management system.

The host may thus view the signing of the digital content within theonline conference, and thus may witness the electronic signature.Further, audit trail data may also be collected that describes signaturetransactions used to collect the electronic signature, such as howcommunicated, how provided, timestamps, and so forth. In this way, thisaudit trail data may also be used to verify authenticity of theelectronic signature.

This Summary introduces a selection of concepts in a simplified formthat are further described below in the Detailed Description. As such,this Summary is not intended to identify essential features of theclaimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid indetermining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. Entities represented in the figures may be indicative of one ormore entities and thus reference may be made interchangeably to singleor plural forms of the entities in the discussion.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment in an example implementationthat is operable to employ electronic signature and online conferencetechniques described herein.

FIG. 2 depicts a system in an example implementation in which digitalcontent is configured to collect electronic signatures by a host deviceas part of an online conference.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which digital content is configured to collectelectronic signatures by a host device as part of an online conference.

FIG. 4 depicts a user interface in an example implementation in which anattendee of an online conference is selected by a host device toelectronically sign digital content within an online conference.

FIG. 5 depicts a user interface in an example implementation in which ahost device is used to position a representation of a signature modulewithin digital content at a location, at which, the electronic signatureis to be inserted as part of the digital content.

FIG. 6 depicts a system in an example implementation in which anelectronic signature is collected as part of digital content within anonline conference.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which an electronic signature is collected within anonline conference.

FIG. 8 depicts a user interface in an example implementation in which anattendee of an online conference is exposed to a representation of asignature module that is to be used to collect an electronic signaturefrom the attendee.

FIG. 9 depicts a user interface in an example implementation in which anelectronic signature is collected from the attendee of FIG. 8 .

FIG. 10 depicts a user interface in an example implementation in whichthe collected electronic signature is committed as part of the digitalcontent.

FIG. 11 depicts a user interface in an example implementation in whichthe digital content includes electronic signatures from a plurality ofattendees as viewed by a host of the online conference.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example system including various components of anexample device that can be implemented as any type of computing deviceas described and/or utilize with reference to FIGS. 1-11 to implementembodiments of the techniques described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Techniques and systems are described that support collection ofelectronic signatures within an online conference. An online conferenceis implemented as an online collaborative service, via which, attendeesof the conference interact via a network. This interaction may involveuse of audio and/or video communicated over the network via respectivecomputing devices of the attendees, such as mobile phones, desktopcomputers, tablets, and so forth. Online conferences may take a varietyof forms, such as web seminars, webcasts, web meetings, and othercollaborative sessions implemented via a network such as the Internet.As such, online conferences may be used to connect attendees in realtime across a wide range of geographic distances (e.g., differentoffices to across the world) to interact regarding whatever topic isdesired using respective computing devices.

Through use of the techniques and system described herein, electronicsignatures may be collected as part of a document or other digitalcontent shared within the online conference. For example, digitalcontent such as documents, spreadsheets, images, multimedia, and soforth may be viewed by the attendees as part of the online conference.In some instances, this digital content is to be electronically signedby the attendees, such as for legal documents, contracts, agreements,and so forth. By enabling collection of electronic signatures fromwithin the online conference (e.g., through interaction of conferencehost module and conference client module), attendees of the conferencemay witness the signatures, which is not possible using conventionalelectronic signature techniques. Further, the online signatures mayleverage authentication performed as part of the online conference,thereby increasing a likely authenticity of the electronic signatures asopposed to conventional network communication techniques used to collectelectronic signatures, e.g., email, that do not have this authenticationin order to access the document to be signed.

To do so, a host of the online conference, through interaction with ahost device, causes communication of a signature module to attendeesthat are to sign digital content. The host, for instance, may select anoption to “enable e-signing” in a user interface of the host device fordigital content being displayed as part of the online conference. Inresponse, a representation of a signature module is inserted at a pointin the digital content that is to receive the signature by the hostdevice from an attendee of the conference.

The representation of the signature module, for instance, may appear asa “party 1, sign here” sticker that is positioned by the host at alocation within the digital content that is to receive the electronicsignature, e.g., a signature line, from this attendee. This positioningmay also be performed automatically and without user intervention, suchas through text and image analysis of the digital content to locate asignature line that corresponds to a name of an attendee of theconference. This automatic location may then be refined by the host ifdesired through interaction with a user interface of the onlineconference.

The host, through interaction with the host device, may then initiate acommand to cause a view of the digital content as well as the signaturemodule to be shared with (i.e., displayed to) respective attendees ofthe conference that are to electronically sign the content. For example,the digital content may be automatically displayed to the attendees,from which, the signature module is specified to receive an electronicsignature.

The respective attendees then view the digital content within the onlineconference at respective client devices. Selection of the representationof the signature module within the view of the digital content theninvokes the signature module to collect the electronic signature.Collection of the electronic signature may be performed locally (e.g.,through user input or locally-stored signature) or remotely via a remoteservice provider system having a stored copy of the electronicsignature. Once collected, the respective attendee may then select anoption to commit the electronic signature to the digital content, at thelocation within the digital content. This causes communication of theelectronic signature, within the online conference, for insertion aspart of the digital content and may include location informationspecifying the location within the digital content, at which, thesignature is to be inserted. Once committed, the electronic signature isnot further modifiable and thus protects against tampering bypotentially malicious parties.

As this process is being performed, the host may view the attendee'sinteraction with the view of the digital content and the provision ofthe electronic signature in real time, which is not possible usingconventional electronic signature techniques. Further, audit trail datamay also be collected along with the electronic signature that describessignature transactions involved in the collection of the electronicsignature, e.g., user credentials, time stamps, identification of adevice used to collect the electronic signature, source of theelectronic signature (e.g., local or remote), and so forth. In this way,electronic signatures may be collected in a manner that is witnessedusing the online conference and leverages authentication of the onlineconference, which is not possible using conventional electronicsignature techniques. Further discussion of this and other examples isincluded in the following and shown in a corresponding figure.

In the following discussion, an example environment is first describedthat may employ the techniques described herein. Example procedures arealso described which may be performed in the example environment as wellas other environments. Consequently, performance of the exampleprocedures is not limited to the example environment and the exampleenvironment is not limited to performance of the example procedures.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a digital medium environment 100 in anexample implementation that is operable to employ electronic signatureand online conference techniques described herein. The illustratedenvironment 100 includes a conference management system 102, a hostdevice 104, and a plurality of client devices 106, . . . , 108 that arecommunicatively coupled, one to another, via a network 110. Theconference management system 102, host device 104, and plurality ofclient devices 106, 108 are implemented using one or more computingdevices, which may be configured in a variety of ways.

A computing device, for instance, may be configured as a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a mobile device (e.g., assuming a handheldconfiguration such as a tablet or mobile phone as illustrated), and soforth. Thus, the computing device may range from full resource deviceswith substantial memory and processor resources (e.g., personalcomputers, game consoles) to a low-resource device with limited memoryand/or processing resources (e.g., mobile devices). Additionally, acomputing device may be representative of a plurality of differentdevices as a computer system, such as multiple servers utilized by abusiness to perform operations “over the cloud,” of the conferencemanagement system 102 as further described in relation to FIG. 12 .

The conference management system 120, host device 104, and plurality ofclient devices 106, 108 are configured to implement an online conferencevia the network 110. As previously described, the online conference isan online collaborative service, via which, attendees of the conferenceinteract via the network 110. This interaction may involve use of audioand/or video communicated over the network 110, such as to share videoand audio of attendees of the conference, a host of the conferencesolely, and so on. Online conferences may take a variety of forms, suchas web seminars, webcasts, web meetings, and other collaborativesessions implemented via a network such as the Internet. As such, onlineconferences may be used to connect attendees in real time across a widerange of geographic distances (e.g., different offices within the samebuilding to across the world) to interact regarding whatever topic isdesired using respective computing devices.

Online conferences may take a variety of forms. In one example, theonline conference is implemented between the host device 104 and theclient devices 106, 108 through use of an intermediary, i.e., theconference management system 102. The conference management system 102,for instance, includes a conference manager module 112 that isimplemented at least partially in functionality of at least onecomputing device to manage authentication, generation of user interface,and distribution of audio and/or video data between the host device 104and the client devices 106, 108. In another example, the onlineconference is implemented using a peer-to-peer network and thus does notuse the conference management system 102. Rather, functionality of theconference management system 102 is implemented by the “peers” of thenetwork, e.g., the host device 104 and/or client devices 106, 108.

The host device 104 and the client devices 106, 108 are named as such inthe example digital medium environment 100 to indicate differentfunctionalities that may be made available to a host and attendees ofthe online conference, respectively. The host device 104, for instance,includes a conference host module 114 to initiate the online conference,manage access by attendees to the online conference, and control sharingof audio, video, and digital content as part of the online conference.

The client devices 106, 108 include respective conference client modules116, 118, via which, attendees that interact with the client devices106, 108 may access the online conference but do not have thefunctionality of the host device 104 to manage the online conference.The conference client modules 116, 118, for instance, may requestpermission from the conference host module 114 to share digital content,assume control of screen sharing, and so forth as permitted by theconference host module 114.

Other examples are also contemplated in which each attendee of theconference has access to this functionality, e.g., each attendee of theonline conference can share digital content, invite other attendees, andso forth. Further, this may be performed directly between the hostdevice 104 and client devices 106, 108 via a peer-to-peer network orindirectly through the conference management system 102, e.g., to sharedigital content stored in storage 120 of the conference managementsystem 102.

The conference host module 114, in the illustrated example, isillustrated as including a signature manager module 122 implemented atleast partially in hardware of a computing device. The signature managermodule 122 is configured to manage collection of electronic signaturesfor inclusion as part of digital content 124 within an onlineconference. The signature manager module 122, for instance, maycommunicate signature modules to respective attendees to collectelectronic signatures from the respective attendees of the onlineconference as specified by the host device 104. This may also includecollection of data usable to verify authenticity of the electronicsignature, which is referred to as an audit trail. An example ofconfiguration of the digital content 124 for collection of electronicsignatures is described in the following description in relation toFIGS. 2-5 . An example of collection of electronic signatures using theconfigured digital content 124 is described in relation to FIGS. 6-11 .

Configuration of Digital Content to Collect Electronic Signatures

FIG. 2 depicts a system 200 and FIG. 3 depicts a procedure 300 in anexample implementation in which electronic signatures are collectedwithin an online conference. FIG. 2 is illustrated using first, second,and third stages 202, 204, 206. FIG. 4 depicts a user interface 400 inan example implementation in which an attendee of an online conferenceis selected by a host device to electronically sign digital content aspart of an online conference. FIG. 5 depicts a user interface 500 in anexample implementation in which a host device is used to position arepresentation of a signature module within digital content at alocation, at which, the electronic signature is to be inserted as partof the digital content. In this section, reference is madeinterchangeably to FIGS. 2-5 .

In general, functionality, features, and concepts described in relationto the examples above and below may be employed in the context of theexample procedure described in this section. Further, functionality,features, and concepts described in relation to different figures andexamples in this document may be interchanged among one another and arenot limited to implementation in the context of a particular figure orprocedure. Moreover, blocks associated with different representativeprocedures and corresponding figures herein may be applied togetherand/or combined in different ways. Thus, individual functionality,features, and concepts described in relation to different exampleenvironments, devices, components, figures, and procedures herein may beused in any suitable combinations and are not limited to the particularcombinations represented by the enumerated examples in this description.

To begin, an online conference is initiated 208 by the conference hostmodule 114 at the first stage 202 of FIG. 2 . A host interacting withthe host device 104, for instance, may cause creation of meeting placeURL which is shared with attendees that are to participate in the onlineconference. This may involve interaction with a conference managementsystem 102 or directly between the host device and client devices 106,108 of the attendees that are invited to the online conference.

As part of this, the online conference may be set as “private” such thatattendees are specifically invited to attend the online conference byspecifying an email address or other user identifier. This provides afirst level of authentication as part of joining the online conference.A host of the host device 104, for instance, may specify email addressesof the attendees as part of an invitation that includes a meeting placeURL describing “where” the online conference is to occur. Therefore,access to this online conference is limited at this first level ofauthentication to users that have received the invitation. A secondlevel of authentication may also be employed in which the users of theclient device 106, 108 upon selection of URL are placed in a queue and anotification is sent to the host device 104 to request access to theonline conference. The host, through interaction with a user interfaceof the conference host module 114, may then approve the request topermit access. This may be performed by the conference host module 114and/or remotely as part of an authentication module 210 of theconference manager module 112. Data describing that this authenticationhas been performed may also be stored as part of the audit trail asfurther described in the following. Other examples are alsocontemplated, including setting of the online conference as public andthus not limiting access to the online conference.

At the second stage 204, the host interacts with the signature managermodule 122 of the host device 104 to cause collection of an electronicsignature. As part of this, at least one user input is received as partof the online conference. The user input specifies an attendee of theonline conference that is to provide an electronic signature on digitalcontent (block 302). As shown in the user interface 400 of FIG. 4 , ahost interacts with the user interface 400 to select (e.g., highlight)two attendees 402, 404 of the online conference that are to sign digitalcontent 408 that is shared as part of the online conference, e.g.,“Agreement.doc.”

In an implementation, functionality of the online conference to initiateuse of the signature module 212 to collect signatures is limited to thehost of the online conference. In this way, the host may controlcollection of electronic signatures from attendees that have beeninvited by the host as part of the online conference through interactionwith the signature manager module 122. Other implementations are alsocontemplated in which functionality of the signature manager module 122is implemented using the conference client modules 116, 118 may be“passed” for use by the attendees from the host in a manner similar tohow screen sharing may be passed in the online conference, and so forth.

A signature module 212 is communicated to the attendee within the onlineconference. The signature module is configured to collect the electronicsignature from the attendee (block 304). As shown in the user interface500 of FIG. 5 , for instance, an option 502 “place e-sign widget” isoutput. The option 502 is selectable to place a representation of thesignature module 212 at respective locations within the digital content406, at which, electronic signatures are to be inserted within thedigital content 406.

A first representation 504, for instance, is configured to mimic aphysical signature sticker as “party 1, sign” is placed at a locationwithin the digital content that corresponds to the first party, e.g.,“Bryan Smith” of FIG. 4 . The host, for instance, may use a cursorcontrol device, gesture, and so forth to position the representation 504within the user interface. Thus, the representation 504 is moveable bythe host to a desired location within the digital content 406. Likewise,a second representation 506 may also be positioned within the digitalcontent 406 by the host.

The signature manager module 122 may also be configured to automaticallyplace the representation of the signature module 212 within the digitalcontent 124 to likely locations. The signature manager module 122, forinstance, may employ text and image recognition to locate signaturelines that correspond to respective attendees, e.g., has the name of theattendee, indication of “first” or “second” party, and so forth. Thisinitial placement may then be further modified by the host throughinteraction with the user interface as previously described, such as tocorrect this initial placement.

At the third stage 206, a view of the digital content 214 having theinserted signature module 212 is shared for viewing by the attendeesthat are to sign the digital content 124 within the online conference.The conference host module 114, for instance, may receive a user inputto then collect electronic signatures, which causes transmission of thesignature module 212 via the network 110.

Electronic signatures, collected through user interaction with thesignature modules 212, are then applied to the digital content (block306). For example, data including the electronic signature and positionof the electronic signature as applied to the view of the digitalcontent is communicated back to the host device 104 or conferencemanagement system 102. The electronic signature, based on the location,is then inserted as part of the digital content 124 by the host device104.

Storage is then controlled of the digital content as having the appliedelectronic signatures (block 308), such as to cause local storage at thehost device 104 and/or remote storage as part of the conferencemanagement system 102. This may also include storage of associated datadescribing how the electronic signature is collected, i.e., audit traildata. Further discussion of collection of the electronic signature forinclusion as part of the digital content 124 through interaction withthe signature module 212 is described in the following section and shownin corresponding figures.

Collection of an Electronic Signature

FIG. 6 depicts a system 600 and FIG. 7 depicts a procedure 700 in anexample implementation in which an electronic signature is collectedwithin an online conference. FIG. 6 is illustrated using first, second,and third stages 602, 604, 606. FIG. 8 depicts a user interface 800 inan example implementation in which an attendee of an online conferenceis exposed to a representation of a signature module that is to be usedto collect an electronic signature from the attendee. FIG. 9 depicts auser interface 900 in an example implementation in which an electronicsignature is collected from the attendee of FIG. 8 . FIG. 10 depicts auser interface 1000 in an example implementation in which a user inputis received to cause the collected electronic signature to be committedas part of the digital content. FIG. 11 depicts a user interface 1100 inan example implementation in which the digital content includessignatures from a plurality of attendees as viewed by a host of theonline conference. In this section, reference is made interchangeably toFIGS. 6-11 .

To begin, a view of digital content having a representation of asignature module is displayed within an online conference on a displaydevice (block 702), e.g., display through the conference client module116. As shown at the first stage 602, for instance, the client device106 receives the view of the digital content 214 having the signaturemodule 212 as configured in the previous section. The view of thedigital content 214 is output in the user interface 800 of FIG. 8 .Because the view of the digital content 214 is output by the clientdevice 106 that corresponds to the attendee “Bryan Smith” of the onlineconference, the representation 504 of the signature module that is tocollect the signature from Bryan Smith is output and otherrepresentations corresponding to other attendees are not output, such asfrom “John Smith.” This may be performed in a variety of ways, such asthrough communication of a version of the signature module for use bythe first attendee and not the second attendee, through authenticationperformed by the conference client module 116 locally at the clientdevice 106 to control output of a corresponding signature module, and soforth.

An electronic signature is collected by the signature module within theonline conference via at least one user input received from aninput/output interface (block 704). As shown at the second stage 604,for instance, the electronic signature 608 is collected throughinteraction with the signature module 212 within the view of the digitalcontent 214. This is performed responsive to a user input 610 to specifyinclusion of the electronic signature 608, e.g., through use of akeyboard, cursor control device, gesture, spoken utterance, and soforth. Collection of the electronic signature 608 by the signaturemodule 212 may be performed in a variety of ways.

As shown at the user interface 900 of FIG. 9 , for instance, therepresentation 504 to provide an electronic signature by “Bryan Smith”is displayed as part of the view of the digital content 406 in the userinterface 900. The representation 504 is displayed at a location, atwhich, the electronic signature 902 is to be included within the digitalcontent 406.

The attendee then selects the representation 504 to insert an electronicsignature 902, e.g., via a cursor control device or gesture which isthen received via an input/output interface. This may be performedlocally through manual interaction of the attendee with the userinterface 900, such as to draw or type the electronic signature 902using a stylus, cursor control device, keyboard, and so forth. This mayalso be performed to insert a previously stored electronic signaturelocally from the client device 106 and/or remotely from storage 120 ofthe conference management system 102. In order to import the electronicsignature 902 from remote storage 120, the conference manager system 102or other network service may authenticate the attendee, e.g., throughuse of a user name and password.

Regardless of how the electronic signature 902 is collected, thesignature module 212 then outputs an option 1002 to commit theelectronic signature 608 for storage as part of the digital content 406,e.g., at the host device 104 and/or conference management system 102.Once committed, the electronic signature 608 is not further modifiableby a user (e.g., conference attendee) as part of the digital content406, e.g., the representation 504 of the signature module 122 is removedfrom the user interface 1000 of the client device 106.

As the electronic signature 608 is collected by the signature module 212of the client device 106, the conference management system 102 and/orhost device 104 may witness the signing within the online conference. Ahost associated with the host device 104, for instance, may witnessdisplay of the user interfaces 800, 900, 1000, attendee interaction withthe user interface including how the electronic signature is collected,and may even receive audio and/or video data as part of the onlineconference of the attendee as providing the signature. In this way, thehost and even other attendees of the online conference, as permitted bythe host, may witness collection of the electronic signature which wasnot possible using conventional electronic signature techniques.

Data may also be collected that describes signature transactions 612involved in collection of the electronic signature 608, which may bestored as audit trail data 614 that is usable to authenticate and veritythe electronic signature 608. The audit trail data 614, for instance,may describe user credentials, time stamps of the signature transactions612, identification of a device (e.g., network address of client device106) used to collect the electronic signature 608, source of theelectronic signature 608 (e.g., local or remote), and so forth. Theaudit trail data 614 may also include authentication data employed toperform the online conference, such as if the online conference is setas public or private, whether invitations are used, notificationsemployed to permit access, a URL of the online conference, and so forth.

As shown at the third stage 606, the collected signature is caused to beapplied to the digital content (block 706), e.g., by the host device 104and/or conference management system 102. As shown in the user interface1100 of FIG. 11 , for instance, the digital content 406 includes theelectronic signature 902 for “Bryan Smith” as collected in FIGS. 8-10and an electronic signature 1102 for “John Smith” which may be collectedusing similar techniques. In this way, the host of the online conferencemay store the digital content 406 as signed within the onlineconference, may witness the provision of the electronic signatures, andmay capture audit trail data usable to verify the online signature. Thismay also be used as part of document level operating workflows, such asthrough configuration of the electronic signatures as an electronicstamp to indicate approval or rejection of parts of the digital contentas an aid to an author, approver, or attendee without requiring theattendees to be physically present at a same geographic location.

In the above examples, the host device maintains a “master” version ofthe digital content 124, view 214 of which are provided to attendees ofthe conference to electronically sign through interaction with asignature module 212. Other examples are also contemplated, such as tocommunicate versions of the digital content 124 having the signaturemodule 212 to respective attendees, which are then collected by the hostdevice 104 and/or conference management system 102. These versions maybe merged into a single version of the digital content 124 or maintainedseparately in storage.

Example System and Device

FIG. 12 illustrates an example system generally at 1200 that includes anexample computing device 1202 that is representative of one or morecomputing systems and/or devices that may implement the varioustechniques described herein. This is illustrated through inclusion ofthe signature manager module 122 and view of the digital content 214having the signature module 112. The computing device 1202 may be, forexample, a server of a service provider, a device associated with aclient (e.g., a client device), an on-chip system, and/or any othersuitable computing device or computing system.

The example computing device 1202 as illustrated includes a processingsystem 1204, one or more computer-readable media 1206, and one or moreI/O interface 1208 that are communicatively coupled, one to another.Although not shown, the computing device 1202 may further include asystem bus or other data and command transfer system that couples thevarious components, one to another. A system bus can include any one orcombination of different bus structures, such as a memory bus or memorycontroller, a peripheral bus, a universal serial bus, and/or a processoror local bus that utilizes any of a variety of bus architectures. Avariety of other examples are also contemplated, such as control anddata lines.

The processing system 1204 is representative of functionality to performone or more operations using hardware. Accordingly, the processingsystem 1204 is illustrated as including hardware element 1210 that maybe configured as processors, functional blocks, and so forth. This mayinclude implementation in hardware as an application specific integratedcircuit or other logic device formed using one or more semiconductors.The hardware elements 1210 are not limited by the materials from whichthey are formed or the processing mechanisms employed therein. Forexample, processors may be comprised of semiconductor(s) and/ortransistors (e.g., electronic integrated circuits (ICs)). In such acontext, processor-executable instructions may beelectronically-executable instructions.

The computer-readable storage media 1206 is illustrated as includingmemory/storage 1212. The memory/storage 1212 represents memory/storagecapacity associated with one or more computer-readable media. Thememory/storage component 1212 may include volatile media (such as randomaccess memory (RAM)) and/or nonvolatile media (such as read only memory(ROM), Flash memory, optical disks, magnetic disks, and so forth). Thememory/storage component 1212 may include fixed media (e.g., RAM, ROM, afixed hard drive, and so on) as well as removable media (e.g., Flashmemory, a removable hard drive, an optical disc, and so forth). Thecomputer-readable media 1206 may be configured in a variety of otherways as further described below.

Input/output interface(s) 1208 are representative of functionality toallow a user to enter commands and information to computing device 1202,and also allow information to be presented to the user and/or othercomponents or devices using various input/output devices. Examples ofinput devices include a keyboard, a cursor control device (e.g., amouse), a microphone, a scanner, touch functionality (e.g., capacitiveor other sensors that are configured to detect physical touch), a camera(e.g., which may employ visible or non-visible wavelengths such asinfrared frequencies to recognize movement as gestures that do notinvolve touch), and so forth. Examples of output devices include adisplay device (e.g., a monitor or projector), speakers, a printer, anetwork card, tactile-response device, and so forth. Thus, the computingdevice 1202 may be configured in a variety of ways as further describedbelow to support user interaction.

Various techniques may be described herein in the general context ofsoftware, hardware elements, or program modules. Generally, such modulesinclude routines, programs, objects, elements, components, datastructures, and so forth that perform particular tasks or implementparticular abstract data types. The terms “module,” “functionality,” and“component” as used herein generally represent software, firmware,hardware, or a combination thereof. The features of the techniquesdescribed herein are platform-independent, meaning that the techniquesmay be implemented on a variety of commercial computing platforms havinga variety of processors.

An implementation of the described modules and techniques may be storedon or transmitted across some form of computer-readable media. Thecomputer-readable media may include a variety of media that may beaccessed by the computing device 1202. By way of example, and notlimitation, computer-readable media may include “computer-readablestorage media” and “computer-readable signal media.”

“Computer-readable storage media” may refer to media and/or devices thatenable persistent and/or non-transitory storage of information incontrast to mere signal transmission, carrier waves, or signals per se.Thus, computer-readable storage media refers to non-signal bearingmedia. The computer-readable storage media includes hardware such asvolatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media and/orstorage devices implemented in a method or technology suitable forstorage of information such as computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, logic elements/circuits, or other data.Examples of computer-readable storage media may include, but are notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, harddisks, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or other storage device, tangible media, orarticle of manufacture suitable to store the desired information andwhich may be accessed by a computer.

“Computer-readable signal media” may refer to a signal-bearing mediumthat is configured to transmit instructions to the hardware of thecomputing device 1202, such as via a network. Signal media typically mayembody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,or other data in a modulated data signal, such as carrier waves, datasignals, or other transport mechanism. Signal media also include anyinformation delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means asignal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed insuch a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example,and not limitation, communication media include wired media such as awired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such asacoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media.

As previously described, hardware elements 1210 and computer-readablemedia 1206 are representative of modules, programmable device logicand/or fixed device logic implemented in a hardware form that may beemployed in some embodiments to implement at least some aspects of thetechniques described herein, such as to perform one or moreinstructions. Hardware may include components of an integrated circuitor on-chip system, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), a complex programmable logicdevice (CPLD), and other implementations in silicon or other hardware.In this context, hardware may operate as a processing device thatperforms program tasks defined by instructions and/or logic embodied bythe hardware as well as a hardware utilized to store instructions forexecution, e.g., the computer-readable storage media describedpreviously.

Combinations of the foregoing may also be employed to implement varioustechniques described herein. Accordingly, software, hardware, orexecutable modules may be implemented as one or more instructions and/orlogic embodied on some form of computer-readable storage media and/or byone or more hardware elements 1210. The computing device 1202 may beconfigured to implement particular instructions and/or functionscorresponding to the software and/or hardware modules. Accordingly,implementation of a module that is executable by the computing device1202 as software may be achieved at least partially in hardware, e.g.,through use of computer-readable storage media and/or hardware elements1210 of the processing system 1204. The instructions and/or functionsmay be executable/operable by one or more articles of manufacture (forexample, one or more computing devices 1202 and/or processing systems1204) to implement techniques, modules, and examples described herein.

The techniques described herein may be supported by variousconfigurations of the computing device 1202 and are not limited to thespecific examples of the techniques described herein. This functionalitymay also be implemented all or in part through use of a distributedsystem, such as over a “cloud” 1214 via a platform 1216 as describedbelow.

The cloud 1214 includes and/or is representative of a platform 1216 forresources 1218. The platform 1216 abstracts underlying functionality ofhardware (e.g., servers) and software resources of the cloud 1214. Theresources 1218 may include applications and/or data that can be utilizedwhile computer processing is executed on servers that are remote fromthe computing device 1202. Resources 1218 can also include servicesprovided over the Internet and/or through a subscriber network, such asa cellular or Wi-Fi network.

The platform 1216 may abstract resources and functions to connect thecomputing device 1202 with other computing devices. The platform 1216may also serve to abstract scaling of resources to provide acorresponding level of scale to encountered demand for the resources1218 that are implemented via the platform 1216. Accordingly, in aninterconnected device embodiment, implementation of functionalitydescribed herein may be distributed throughout the system 1200. Forexample, the functionality may be implemented in part on the computingdevice 1202 as well as via the platform 1216 that abstracts thefunctionality of the cloud 1214.

CONCLUSION

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specificfeatures and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing theclaimed invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: initiating, by a processingdevice, an online video conference including real time video of a firstattendee associated with a first client device and real time video of asecond attendee associated with a second client device; authenticating,by the processing device, the second attendee of the second clientdevice as verified by a host of the online video conference; receiving,by the processing device, data from the first client device, the dataidentifying: digital content to be signed as part of the online videoconference, the digital content including a signature module specific tothe second attendee; and the second attendee is to provide an electronicsignature, the second attendee identified via selection of acorresponding representation in a user interface output by the firstclient device as part of the online video conference; communicating, bythe processing device, the digital content to the second client device,the digital content supporting user interaction via a user interfaceoutput by the second client device as part of the online videoconference to input the electronic signature; receiving, by theprocessing device, data in real time from the second client devicedepicting input of the electronic signature, the input of the electronicsignature performed responsive to selection of the signature module atthe second client device; communicating, by the processing device to thefirst client device, the data depicting input of the electronicsignature for output by a user interface of the first client device;receiving, by the processing device from the second client device, thedigital content including the electronic signature collected by thesignature module; and communicating, by the processing device, thedigital content including the electronic signature to the first clientdevice, the communicated digital content having the electronic signatureincluded as a part thereof along with audit trail data describingconfiguration settings to initiate the online video conference.
 2. Themethod as described in claim 1, wherein the signature module isselectable via the user interface output by the second client device toinitiate input of the electronic signature.
 3. The method as describedin claim 2, wherein the signature module is positioned within thedigital content via the user interface output by the first clientdevice.
 4. The method as described in claim 1, wherein theauthenticating the second attendee of the second client device furtherincludes authenticating access into the online video conference using aparticular user identifier and password.
 5. The method as described inclaim 1, wherein the user interface output by the second client deviceas part of the online video conference to input the electronic signatureincludes a display of the digital content, a display of the signaturemodule that is user selectable to input the electronic signature, andrepresentations of the first and second attendees.
 6. The method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the audit trail data includesauthentication data employed to perform the online video conference. 7.The method as described in claim 1, wherein the audit trail datadescribes notification settings associated with permitting access to theonline video conference.
 8. The method as described in claim 1, whereinthe audit trail data describes whether invitations are used as part ofthe online video conference to authenticate the first attendee and thesecond attendee.
 9. A method comprising: receiving, by a processingdevice, requests from a first client device and a second client deviceto join an online conference; approving, by the processing device, therequests to permit the first client device to join the online conferenceas a first attendee and the second client device to join the onlineconference as a second attendee; communicating, by the processingdevice, a first version of digital content to the first client device,the first version of the digital content including a first attendeespecific signature module configured to collect a first electronicsignature from the first attendee; communicating, by the processingdevice, a second version of the digital content to the second clientdevice, the second version of the digital content including a secondattendee specific signature module configured to collect a secondelectronic signature from the second attendee; communicating, by theprocessing device to the first client device, data depicting input ofthe second electronic signature at the second client device;communicating, by the processing device to the second client device,data depicting input of the first electronic signature at the firstclient device; collecting, by the processing device, the first versionof the digital content including the first electronic signature andwithout the second electronic signature from the first client device andthe second version of the digital content including the secondelectronic signature and without the first electronic signature from thesecond client device; generating, by the processing device, a mergedversion of the digital content by merging the first version of thedigital content having the first electronic signature and without thesecond electronic signature from the first client device and the secondversion of the digital content having the second electronic signaturewithout the first electronic signature from the second client device;and communicating, by the processing device, the merged version of thedigital content having both the first electronic signature and thesecond electronic signature to the first and second client devices. 10.The method as described in claim 9, wherein: the first version of thedigital content includes audit trail data describing inclusion of thefirst electronic signature as part of the first version of the digitalcontent at the first client device; and the second version of thedigital content includes audit trail data describing inclusion of thesecond electronic signature as part of the second version of the digitalcontent at the second client device.
 11. The method as described inclaim 10, wherein the audit trail data describes features of a deviceinvolved in the collection of the first and second electronicsignatures.
 12. The method as described in claim 9, wherein the firstattendee specific signature module and the second attendee specificsignature module are selectable via a user interface to initiate inputof the first and second electronic signatures locally at the firstclient device and the second client device, respectively.
 13. The methodas described in claim 9, wherein collecting the first electronicsignature includes importing a previously stored electronic signature ofthe first attendee, the importing including authenticating the firstattendee through use of a user name and password.
 14. A systemcomprising: a memory; and a processing device coupled to the memory, theprocessing device to perform operations comprising: initiating an onlinevideo conference including real time video of a first attendeeassociated with a first client device and real time video of a secondattendee associated with a second client device; authenticating thesecond attendee of the second client device as verified by a host of theonline video conference; receiving data from the first client device,the data identifying: digital content to be signed as part of the onlinevideo conference, the digital content including a signature modulespecific to the second attendee; and the second attendee is to providean electronic signature, the second attendee identified via selection ofa corresponding representation in a user interface output by the firstclient device as part of the online video conference; communicating thedigital content to the second client device, the digital contentsupporting user interaction via a user interface output by the secondclient deice as part of the online video conference to input theelectronic signature; receiving data in real time from the second clientdevice depicting input of the electronic signature, the input of theelectronic signature performed responsive to selection of the signaturemodule at the second client device; communicating, to the first clientdevice, the data depicting input of the electronic signature for outputby a user interface of the first client device; receiving, from thesecond client device, the digital content including the electronicsignature collected by the signature module; and communicating thedigital content including the electronic signature to the first clientdevice, the communicated digital content having the electronic signatureincluded as a part thereof along with audit trail data describingconfiguration settings to initiate the online video conference.
 15. Thesystem as described in claim 14, wherein the signature module isselectable via the user interface output by the second client device toinitiate input of the electronic signature.
 16. The system as describedin claim 15, wherein the signature module is positioned within thedigital content via the user interface output by the first clientdevice.
 17. The system as described in claim 14, wherein theauthenticating the second attendee of the second client device furtherincludes authenticating access into the online video conference using aparticular user identifier and password.
 18. The system as described inclaim 14, wherein the user interface output by the second client deviceas part of the online video conference to input the electronic signatureincludes a display of the digital content, a display of the signaturemodule that is user selectable to input the electronic signature, andrepresentations of the first and second attendees.
 19. The system asdescribed in claim 14, wherein the audit trail data further describescollection of the electronic signature.
 20. The system as described inclaim 19, wherein the audit trail data describes features of a deviceinvolved in the collection of the electronic signature.